Chafers for food service use in restaurants and institutions are typically quite large units and thus use up substantial storage space when not in use. Moreover, to move one such existing unit from storage to the buffet area or kitchen where the food is placed in the unit requires one person to move each unit, which is labor-intensive and therefore expensive.
Thus, current designs are costly because they utilize expensive storage space and expensive labor. While there has, therefore, been a long-felt need for a chafer which functions in the same fashion as prior art designs but which can be converted into a compact assembly for storage and, moreover, wherein such compact assemblies can be stacked for ease of transportation and efficiency during storage, no one skilled in the art has proposed a solution to these important technical and economical problems.